J.K. Rowling Secretly Publishes Crime Novel Under Pseudonym

Rowling, who recently published 'The Cuckoo's Calling', says in a statement that 'I hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience.'

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J.K. Rowling has secretly published highly-acclaimed crime novel "The Cuckoo's Calling" under pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The "Harry Potter" author admitted in a statement that she enjoyed feedback by readers by using a pseudonym.

"I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name," she said in a statement to London's the Sunday Times.

"The upside of being rumbled is that I can publicly thank my editor David Shelley, who has been a true partner in crime, all those people at Little, Brown who have been working so hard on 'The Cuckoo's Calling' without realizing that I wrote it, and the writers and reviewers, both in the newspapers and online, who have been so generous to the novel," she continued, adding that "to those who have asked for a sequel, Robert fully intends to keep writing the series."

The publisher of "The Cuckoo's Calling", Mulholland Books which is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, previously introduced Galbraith as a former member of the Special Investigative Branch of the Royal Military Police. "The idea for (protagonist) Cormoran Strike grew directly out of his own experiences and those of his military friends who returned to the civilian world. 'Robert Galbraith' is a pseudonym," the publisher said on its website.

The Sunday Times, that got curious about the new author, was investigating "how a first-time author with a background in the army and the civilian security industry could write such an assured debut novel." They noted that Rowling and the mystery author had worked with the same agent, editor as well as publisher, and connected the dot.

After Rowling's identity was confirmed, Reagan Arthur of publisher of Little, Brown and Company told CNN that the book sale soared more than 507,000 percent on Amazon. The publisher is planning to reprint the book and revise the author's biography into, "Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling."